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POTTSTOWN — Borough council may approve a new lease with the Olivet Boys and Girls Club to use the Ricketts Center that would include borough-funded replacement of the roof and upgrading the heating/air-conditioning system.

Currently, council is considering a five-year lease agreement that would begin in September and extend to Dec. 31, 2019.

“During that time, the borough obligation would be to continue to fund the Ricketts Center at its present level of funding, which is $40,000 a year,” Borough Solicitor Charles D. Garner Jr. said at Wednesday night’s committee of the whole meeting of council. “That’s obviously a whole lot less than what the borough was spending on the Ricketts Center 10 years ago.”

Garner said the “success of the Olivets has helped significantly in running the programs and relieve the borough of some of that financial obligation” in parks and recreation. Programs have also grown over the five years the Olivet Boys and Girls Club has run the center, according to Garner.

Map of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The parade of people who rented apartments in an old Crafton house aggravated Chuck Gigliotti, a longtime neighbor who lives across the street. After it became Section 8 housing in 2003, shingles fell off the roof regularly and loose bricks threatened to avalanche from a tall chimney. In 2006, Mr. Gigliotti watched from his home as two dozen police officers and a SWAT team broke down the door and arrested one man.

Finally, in March 2012, he bought the house at 24 Mildred St. for $18,900 and tackled his ninth property. His wife, Lindy, was not thrilled, but Mr. Gigliotti, 56, was ready for another challenge — rehabbing the worst-looking house on the street. He formed a company called Crafton Redux and hired three Triangle Tech graduates to restore the 1904 house that is a near mirror image of his own. Nearly two years later, they’re finished. The four-bedroom, 21/2-bath house is for sale for $220,000.

Mr. Gigliotti has a long history with old houses. At age 19, he joined the local carpenters union. Since 1988, he has been buying houses to remodel and resell. For six years, he was a glazier at Rex Glass in Robinson; for another six he was a self-employed remodeling contractor. Since 2010, he has taught carpentry at Triangle Tech.

Although he has done his share of working on roofs, he had no interest in going up on the high-pitched roof to remove the chimney. So, he cut a 16-inch hole in the wall of a third-floor bedroom and put a ladder through it. Gradually, he and his crew removed bricks, ending up with enough to build a 21/2-foot-wide walkway that parallels the property’s upper side.

A map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with its neighborhoods labeled. For use primarily in the list of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Josh Adamek and Scott Hastings believe their work is a form of neighborhood-building.

“A lot of these properties are distressed, so they aren’t worth anything,” Adamek said of the houses they are renewing. “With some work, they are homes and they help the tax base.”

Adamek is president and Hastings is vice president of Synergy Capital in the Perrysville section of Ross. The 3-year-old real estate development and investment firm is renovating homes in what Adamek calls “trendy neighborhoods” such as Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and the South Side.

“They are doing quality work,” said Aspinwall architect Susan Tusick, who has worked with the pair on several projects. “They are trying to make these city neighborhoods viable again.”

Scaffolding reaches the ceiling in the main hall, and workers from Lobar, Inc., are repairing and patching the ornate plaster to prepare for the final paint job.

Meanwhile, members of the Lancaster Train Station Advisory Committee were told Wednesday, Amtrak workers are in the process of finishing plaster work on the west side of the concourse leading to the train platforms and putting the final coat of paint on the eastern concourse walls.

Work on the ceiling is being postponed until after a new heating/ventilating/air conditioning system is installed on the concourse roof.

At Oyster Mill Playhouse, the aging rooftop heating and air conditioning system is threatening to stage a death scene worthy of “King Lear.”

With audiences — and therefore revenues — down, there’s no money for a replacement, so managers of the not-for-profit community theater in East Pennsboro Twp. are hoping the community will donate about $25,000 to keep Oyster Mill going for another year.

“Like many other theaters, we are having our financial problems,” said Howard Hurwitz, vice president of the 91-seat theater’s board of directors. “This year has been kind of a bad year. We just haven’t been getting the attendance. We used to sell out on opening nights, but now we are lucky if we get the theater half-full.”